{"slug": "onedrive", "name": "OneDrive", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 19, "warners": 9, "score": -3.553, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-12-08", "latest": "2026-10-18", "why": "I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 7, "compare": 0, "warn": 9}, "spark": [0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://onedrive.live.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["OneDrive"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 775306704, "item_id": 48456669, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456669", "by": "alsetmusic", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's honestly been great for my org.", "excerpt": "> solution to a problem nobody really had. It's honestly been great for my org. We used to have custom user-specific shared drives on the network. Laptop replacements were constantly hindered by people not understanding how to transfer data. Since we rolled out OD (not my decision by a mile), that's been consistently easy.", "context": "works at an org that rolled out OneDrive", "use_case": "syncing user data across laptops", "switched_from": "custom user-specific network shared drives", "story": "OneDrive data now has an expiry date"}, {"id": 744440002, "item_id": 46527500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527500", "by": "SanjayMehta", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They all work perfectly for their intended uses.", "excerpt": "I use iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive for family, professional use and junk files respectively. Works out really well. They all work perfectly for their intended uses.", "context": "", "use_case": "junk files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}, {"id": 744438080, "item_id": 46527380, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527380", "by": "snielson", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it.", "excerpt": "I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it. I save things in OneDrive, and they are backed up to the cloud and synced with the other computers I use. Some computers are shared by six family members, each with their own MS account and 1TB of storage. OneDrive makes it so the computers can have a 1TB hard drive but still give everyone ready access to their files by not storing them all on the hard drive. If I ", "context": "shared computers for six family members", "use_case": "syncing files across family computers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 788065120, "item_id": 49254070, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49254070", "by": "ryukoposting", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "All of which have decidedly different UIs for the same incredibly simple task", "excerpt": "Which OneDrive? The one in my browser, the one on my desktop, or the wackadoodle half-Sharepoint mongrel I use at work? All of which have decidedly different UIs for the same incredibly simple task, I might add. Microsoft has been going hard in the direction of making OneDrive intrinsic to Windows, so what even is the \"OneDrive experience\" in contrast to the Windows 11 experience? Who writes this nonsense? Are we goi", "context": "", "use_case": "file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Responds to Outcry After Quiet Enterprise Install of Beta 'Photos' App"}, {"id": 784720160, "item_id": 49045010, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49045010", "by": "belZaah", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Yesterday OneDrive just randomly would not sync a specific file.", "excerpt": "Mac user for 20+ years now. Helped my mother with two Windows laptops. One would not allow her to reset her pin. Nothing allowed me to do a safe boot, the option to enter the password was just not there. The other wouldn\u2019t connect to her wifi. Switched to an admin account and, after login, am greeted with a black screen, a cursor and nothing else. Yesterday OneDrive just randomly would not sync a specific file. Just ", "context": "Mac user for 20+ years", "use_case": "file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nothing works and everyone is euphoric"}, {"id": 783603680, "item_id": 48975230, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975230", "by": "vladvasiliu", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "When I wanted to download a folder with a lot of files in it, it would regularly crap out.", "excerpt": "Well, at least you got to access it. We use OneDrive at work, so I have all the right apps and accounts and whatnots. When I wanted to download a folder with a lot of files in it, it would regularly crap out. There's no way to download the files as files unless you do it one by one. If you select multiple files, it produces a zip, which sometimes fails to transfer properly. The Windows app is somewhat better, in that", "context": "uses OneDrive at work", "use_case": "work file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "How proprietary formats have become Microsoft\u2019s main tool for lock-in"}, {"id": 775088624, "item_id": 48443039, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48443039", "by": "Sparkenstein", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They locked me out without any explanation and without any notificaiton, ended my subscription and I lost valuable photos forever.", "excerpt": "F OneDrive. They locked me out without any explanation and without any notificaiton, ended my subscription and I lost valuable photos forever. Stay away from it if you are looking for storage for any reason.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "OneDrive data now has an expiry date"}]}], "who": [{"by": "esperent", "context": "runs Linux; company mostly on Windows", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50136993", "date": "2026-10-18"}, {"by": "alsetmusic", "context": "works at an org that rolled out OneDrive", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456669", "date": "2026-06-08"}, {"by": "snielson", "context": "shared computers for six family members", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527380", "date": "2026-01-07"}, {"by": "jwnin", "context": "uses it at work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527305", "date": "2026-01-07"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["file sync", "cloud storage", "large file sharing", "syncing joplin notes", "file sync on mac", "work file sync"], "compared": [{"slug": "dropbox", "name": "Dropbox", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "microsoft-copilot", "name": "Microsoft Copilot", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46526376", "title": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48442569", "title": "OneDrive data now has an expiry date", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46493506", "title": "OneDrive just deleted all of my files", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50130228", "title": "Microsoft Teams is a red flag", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50062076", "title": "\"Today we're laying off a large part of the Airtable team \"", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49253329", "title": "Microsoft Responds to Outcry After Quiet Enterprise Install of Beta 'Photos' App", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {"warn": 3, "neutral": 2, "recommend": 2}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"warn": 2}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802191890, "item_id": 50136993, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50136993", "by": "esperent", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For large files only, or files that are shared in chat", "excerpt": "- You use Windows for OS Personally I run linux but most of the company is on Windows, sure - You use Sharepoint for documentation No, we use Nextcloud for docs and most storage - You use Outlook for Mail No, Mxroute. Which actually caused quite a bit of problems with Teams original because it REALLY expects you to use exchange - You use OneDrive for storage For large files only, or files that are shared in chat - Yo", "context": "runs Linux; company mostly on Windows", "use_case": "large file sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Teams is a red flag"}, {"id": 801056338, "item_id": 50066021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50066021", "by": "lubujackson", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "configuring OneDrive as the sync DB", "excerpt": "I finally switched from Evernote to Joplin after I got an email saying my (absurd) $149 annual subscription was going to switch to a $249 one. Spent a half hour picking Joplin, configuring OneDrive as the sync DB and finding and running a backup script that let me dump and reload a decade of notebooks. Then I went to finally cancel the beautiful app they destroyed with greed, only to see that the previous tier of pri", "context": "", "use_case": "syncing Joplin notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "\"Today we're laying off a large part of the Airtable team \""}, {"id": 788065120, "item_id": 49254070, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49254070", "by": "ryukoposting", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "All of which have decidedly different UIs for the same incredibly simple task", "excerpt": "Which OneDrive? The one in my browser, the one on my desktop, or the wackadoodle half-Sharepoint mongrel I use at work? All of which have decidedly different UIs for the same incredibly simple task, I might add. Microsoft has been going hard in the direction of making OneDrive intrinsic to Windows, so what even is the \"OneDrive experience\" in contrast to the Windows 11 experience? Who writes this nonsense? Are we goi", "context": "", "use_case": "file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Responds to Outcry After Quiet Enterprise Install of Beta 'Photos' App"}, {"id": 787544592, "item_id": 49221537, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49221537", "by": "philistine", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I moved to the Mac App Store version of OneDrive specifically because of the constant issues with the background processes", "excerpt": "I moved to the Mac App Store version of OneDrive specifically because of the constant issues with the background processes it insists it must have running at all times. The MAS version has only one of those and it works.", "context": "", "use_case": "file sync on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program"}, {"id": 784720160, "item_id": 49045010, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49045010", "by": "belZaah", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Yesterday OneDrive just randomly would not sync a specific file.", "excerpt": "Mac user for 20+ years now. Helped my mother with two Windows laptops. One would not allow her to reset her pin. Nothing allowed me to do a safe boot, the option to enter the password was just not there. The other wouldn\u2019t connect to her wifi. Switched to an admin account and, after login, am greeted with a black screen, a cursor and nothing else. Yesterday OneDrive just randomly would not sync a specific file. Just ", "context": "Mac user for 20+ years", "use_case": "file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nothing works and everyone is euphoric"}, {"id": 783603680, "item_id": 48975230, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975230", "by": "vladvasiliu", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "When I wanted to download a folder with a lot of files in it, it would regularly crap out.", "excerpt": "Well, at least you got to access it. We use OneDrive at work, so I have all the right apps and accounts and whatnots. When I wanted to download a folder with a lot of files in it, it would regularly crap out. There's no way to download the files as files unless you do it one by one. If you select multiple files, it produces a zip, which sometimes fails to transfer properly. The Windows app is somewhat better, in that", "context": "uses OneDrive at work", "use_case": "work file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "How proprietary formats have become Microsoft\u2019s main tool for lock-in"}, {"id": 775306704, "item_id": 48456669, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456669", "by": "alsetmusic", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's honestly been great for my org.", "excerpt": "> solution to a problem nobody really had. It's honestly been great for my org. We used to have custom user-specific shared drives on the network. Laptop replacements were constantly hindered by people not understanding how to transfer data. Since we rolled out OD (not my decision by a mile), that's been consistently easy.", "context": "works at an org that rolled out OneDrive", "use_case": "syncing user data across laptops", "switched_from": "custom user-specific network shared drives", "story": "OneDrive data now has an expiry date"}, {"id": 775102960, "item_id": 48443935, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48443935", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve seen a lot of people have issues with git, because this is going on in the background and they don\u2019t realize it. They\u2019ll change branches, then OneDrive sees files are missing, so it starts pulling them back down. It makes a mess. Any new hire we get, we need to make sure to explicitly tell them not to keep their code in a folder managed by OneDrive, but they never listen. They speak up about a month later, compl", "context": "works in enterprise IT environment", "use_case": "enterprise file sync/backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "OneDrive data now has an expiry date"}, {"id": 775088624, "item_id": 48443039, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48443039", "by": "Sparkenstein", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They locked me out without any explanation and without any notificaiton, ended my subscription and I lost valuable photos forever.", "excerpt": "F OneDrive. They locked me out without any explanation and without any notificaiton, ended my subscription and I lost valuable photos forever. Stay away from it if you are looking for storage for any reason.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "OneDrive data now has an expiry date"}, {"id": 762796145, "item_id": 47674759, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47674759", "by": "lain98", "date": "2026-04-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For everything else I use paid onedrive subscription.", "excerpt": "I use archive storage class on google cloud, to store old movies and wedding videos, pictures of old vacations. For everything else I use paid onedrive subscription. The biggest problem is user interface with s3 like storage and predictable pricing because remember you also pay for data retrieval and other storage apis, with dropbox etc you pay a fixed amount. Every year or so I roll over data into the bucket. But fo", "context": "", "use_case": "general file storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Stop paying for Dropbox/Google Drive, use your own S3 bucket instead"}, {"id": 762130434, "item_id": 47633152, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47633152", "by": "gogurt2000", "date": "2026-04-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "like Edge, OneDrive, Copilot, etc.", "excerpt": "Windows: - Bloat: software packages and services that cannot be entirely removed (at least not without 3rd party tools) like Edge, OneDrive, Copilot, etc. - Requiring a MS account - Their focus on adding new features and changing visual elements to make things feel fresh (and justify their asking price) at the cost of stability -- both in terms of system stability (it's absurd how often file explorer windows crash in", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What do you dislike most about Linux and Windows?"}, {"id": 748791680, "item_id": 46799480, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799480", "by": "moron4hire", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use OneDrive extensively but there is no official client for Linux", "excerpt": "Anyone have a recommendation on a decent cloud-based file sync tool ala OneDrive? I use OneDrive extensively but there is no official client for Linux and the unofficial one has some major stability issues. I'm willing to change providers but not willing to put in the effort to roll-my-own.", "context": "", "use_case": "cloud file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux"}, {"id": 744440002, "item_id": 46527500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527500", "by": "SanjayMehta", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They all work perfectly for their intended uses.", "excerpt": "I use iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive for family, professional use and junk files respectively. Works out really well. They all work perfectly for their intended uses.", "context": "", "use_case": "junk files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}, {"id": 744438256, "item_id": 46527391, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527391", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Turns out even if you don't have the OneDrive service running on your PC,  Office will store files in OneDrive directly through the API", "excerpt": "I quit using OneDrive early in the Win 8 era. To point out how shambloic it was it was originally called SkyDrive but they were forced to rename it thanks to a trademark lawsuit. I mean, they launch a product that is so important to them that they are willing to make us all miserable shoving it down our throats and they can't be bothered to spend a few $100 or $1000 on a trademark search. I was working with Word and ", "context": "quit using it early in the Win 8 era", "use_case": "cloud storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}, {"id": 744438080, "item_id": 46527380, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527380", "by": "snielson", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it.", "excerpt": "I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it. I save things in OneDrive, and they are backed up to the cloud and synced with the other computers I use. Some computers are shared by six family members, each with their own MS account and 1TB of storage. OneDrive makes it so the computers can have a 1TB hard drive but still give everyone ready access to their files by not storing them all on the hard drive. If I ", "context": "shared computers for six family members", "use_case": "syncing files across family computers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}, {"id": 744436880, "item_id": 46527305, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527305", "by": "jwnin", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use OneDrive at work for all of my documents and have never encountered the horror stories I frequently read.", "excerpt": "I use OneDrive at work for all of my documents and have never encountered the horror stories I frequently read. I read these stories often enough where I believe there genuinely is a problem. But I do wonder why there is a difference for some and not others. Perhaps I've conditioned myself to live with its faults? I will say that the Microsoft Office OneDrive save experience is completely subpar. It behaves completel", "context": "uses it at work", "use_case": "work documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}, {"id": 744023201, "item_id": 46501450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46501450", "by": "PhilipDaineko", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "completely get rid of OneDrive and other annoying Microsoft tools", "excerpt": "I use O&O ShutUp10++ to completely get rid of OneDrive and other annoying Microsoft tools from the recent version of Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OneDrive just deleted all of my files"}, {"id": 743916656, "item_id": 46494791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46494791", "by": "pcurve", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "One drive royally screwed me over years ago and I lost many files.", "excerpt": "One drive royally screwed me over years ago and I lost many files. Watching this video completely triggered me. It's one of many reasons why I switched to Mac. Too bad I cannot get away from OneDrive because workplace uses them a lot.", "context": "workplace uses it a lot", "use_case": "cloud file storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "OneDrive just deleted all of my files"}, {"id": 739137441, "item_id": 46196090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46196090", "by": "SomeHacker44", "date": "2025-12-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I do heavily use OneDrive space though.", "excerpt": "I would prefer unbundling this. I do not use Microsoft Office apps; I use Google Workspace apps which can read those files. I do heavily use OneDrive space though. I want to pay only for that. And cannot. I would love to find a OneDrive replacement that works well both on Linux and Windows (and Android, iOS).", "context": "", "use_case": "cloud storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices"}]}